Star Clusters
Discover amazing facts about star clusters, the spectacular groups of hundreds or thousands of stars that formed together
Star clusters contain hundreds or thousands of stars packed together in beautiful cosmic neighborhoods
Star clusters are like cosmic neighborhoods where hundreds or thousands of stars live close together! These spectacular groups formed when large clouds of gas and dust collapsed under their own gravity, creating many stars at the same time in the same region of space. There are two main types of star clusters: open clusters and globular clusters. Open clusters are loose groups of relatively young stars that will eventually drift apart over millions of years, while globular clusters are tight, ball-shaped groups of very old stars held together by strong gravity.
Some of the most beautiful sights in the night sky are star clusters that you can see with just your eyes or binoculars. The Pleiades, also called the "Seven Sisters," is a famous open cluster that looks like a tiny dipper of stars. Globular clusters contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy - many are over 10 billion years old! These ancient stellar cities can contain up to a million stars packed into a space only a few dozen light-years across, making them incredibly dense stellar neighborhoods.
